Picture this: you have a luxury sports car parked in your garage. It’s a significant investment designed for speed and maneuverability. But instead of pushing it to its limits, you take it out for a leisurely drive at 30 mph every weekend. You’d be wasting your investment, right?

Of course. That also happens when boutique asset managers invest in serious enterprise-level digital platforms like HubSpot and use them as basic email platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. But why do they do that?

Several reasons come to mind:

• Lack of experience: The person using the platform often lacks experience in digital marketing or the asset management industry. They may need to learn on the fly and rely on watching YouTube videos to get started.
• Complicated range of features: Users may require proper training to use the various features HubSpot offers.
• Lower-priced or even free plans: Many firms are drawn to the lower-priced or free plans, which may not include the powerful features that make HubSpot a valuable tool.

With this in mind, let’s examine the common challenges boutique asset managers frequently encounter when trying to maximize their use of HubSpot. These obstacles can generally be categorized into two types: strategic and tactical. We’ll also discuss some potential solutions to navigate these issues.

Strategic Roadblocks:

Strategic roadblocks stem from high-level planning and decision-making hurdles in a digital marketing strategy.

• Lack of an Overall Digital Marketing Strategy: Achieving the full potential of HubSpot requires a clear, pre-defined digital marketing strategy. Determine your goals, such as lead generation, brand awareness, and supporting your sales team, and then guide your HubSpot usage to meet these objectives.
• Lack of Integration with the Sales Team: Your sales team can leverage lead information and opportunities with proper integration. Encourage frequent communication between your sales and marketing teams and use HubSpot’s features to share information easily. Set up real-time notifications so your sales team can immediately learn about prospects engaging your content.
• Inexperienced Digital Marketing Professionals: Companies may fail to fully exploit HubSpot’s capabilities if they do not have skilled digital marketing professionals on their teams. Hiring experienced digital marketing professionals, or investing in training for your current team, can significantly enhance your HubSpot experience.
• Neglecting Timely Content: Consistently publishing high-quality content focusing on your messages and client pain points in articles, videos, whitepapers, digital investor assessments, podcasts, and webinars, can yield long-term benefits. By leveraging HubSpot’s blog and other content management features, you can regularly produce and distribute diverse, SEO-optimized content that attracts and engages your target audience.
• Neglecting to Track Analytics: HubSpot offers detailed analytics on website performance, email marketing, sales metrics, and individual lead engagement. Ignoring these metrics can mean missing out on important insights. Broad metrics such as website visits and email open rates inform overall effectiveness, while individual lead data, such as lead scores, tell you which prospects have the potential to convert. Regularly review the data to understand what is working well and what is not. Strategic marketing decisions based on accurate data will always reap higher rewards than without.
• Lack of CRM Integration: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integration can make tracking leads, prospects, and customers easier. A CRM is designed to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the sales cycle. Ensure that your external CRM, like Salesforce, is well-integrated with HubSpot, or opt for HubSpot’s own CRM to guarantee that all data is easily accessible and current. While Microsoft Outlook effectively manages emails and scheduling, it isn’t a CRM system.

Tactical Roadblocks

Tactical roadblocks deal with the practical execution and efficient usage of HubSpot’s capabilities. Overcoming these requires how to use the platform’s features.

• Onboarding and Migration Missteps: If boutique asset managers don’t strategically set up their systems when starting on HubSpot or migrating from another platform, they may not get the most out of the effort. Take the time to develop your long-term marketing strategy fully. Then understand and set up HubSpot appropriately during onboarding and ensure your systems align with your long-term marketing strategy.
• Not Regularly Cleaning Contact Lists: Your contact lists are vital for maintaining engagement rates and sender reputation. Contacts often change their details; for example, financial advisors adopt new email addresses when switching firms. If emails to old addresses bounce back, your sender’s reputation can suffer, leading to fewer good emails in your prospect’s inbox. To avoid this, ensure you update and prune your contact lists during onboarding and migration, as well as regularly. Remove non-engaging contacts to optimize engagement rates and keep your sender reputation intact.
• Poorly Designed Emails: The effectiveness of your HubSpot strategy largely depends on the quality of your content and the emails you send. If your emails don’t look professional and engaging, they may negatively impact your brand. Use HubSpot’s email templates or hire a designer to create custom ones that reflect your brand. And A/B test your emails often for effectiveness.
• Overlooking A/B Testing: HubSpot allows A/B testing of emails, and landing pages, among others. You can compare two versions to optimize your messaging. If overlooked, you miss refining your strategy. A/B test elements such as headlines, call-to-action buttons, and images to determine what resonates best with your audience. Change only one element per test for accurate results, leading to significant increases in engagement over time.
• Not Using HubSpot’s Automation Features: One of HubSpot’s key advantages is its automation capabilities. You’re not exploiting the platform’s potential if you’re not using them. Use HubSpot’s email sequences and develop workflows to save time and ensure your leads are nurtured effectively.
• Failing to Use Lead Generation Strategies: HubSpot is renowned for its ability to generate and track leads. Failing to use these features can result in missed opportunities. Employ lead magnets, quality content that a prospect would give you an email address for, such as a webinar registration, white paper download, or signing up for your newsletter, and use calls-to-action, landing pages, and forms to capture and track those potential leads.
• Poorly Optimized Landing Pages: Some firms drive visitors to their home page or specific fund page. They are missing out. Landing pages are vital for guiding your visitors toward signing up, downloading, or registering for something of value. Use HubSpot’s landing page tools to create and optimize your landing pages. Keep your landing pages clear, concise, and focused on one specific action to increase conversions. Remember to A/B test for improvements.

By recognizing and overcoming these roadblocks, you can take full advantage of your digital marketing strategy and HubSpot’s capabilities, just as you would push a sports car to its limits on an open highway. Remember, if you need help navigating, consider contacting a professional. Don’t let your sports car or investment in your digital marketing strategy go to waste.

Are you looking to unleash the full potential of your digital marketing strategy and improve your use of HubSpot for your boutique asset management firm? Schedule your free strategy session to learn more.

Dan Sondhelm is the CEO of Sondhelm Partners, a firm dedicated to helping boutique asset managers like you attract investors, strengthen credibility, and build influential brands.